Special report - Driven Abroad - The Detroit News Online11/21/04

Sunday, November 21, 2004

A tangle of wires surrounds Yu Yanhui, 24, at a plant in Wuhu, China, where the search for lower labor costs has sent hundreds of jobs once based in Michigan and Mexico. The typical Chinese assembly worker gets about 50 cents an hour compared with an average U.S. worker's $25 an hour.

The demise of Michigan's wire harness industry is a global tale of economic survival and the endless quest for cheap labor
Huang Wei's future and Deb Coverdill's past are linked by a bundle of color-coded wires. Coverdill had seen hundreds of co-workers laid off and machinery shipped overseas from her automotive wire harness plant in Michigan. In October, Coverdill's plant was for sale and her job in jeopardy. 11/21/04

Chapter One: Uprooted in America
Cost cuts whittle away at U.S. jobs, way of life
HARBOR BEACH--They call themselves the sole survivors with half-hearted laughs that echo through the nearly empty factory. 11/21/04

Profile: John Hardy
One of the company's holdouts adjusts to a life without certainty
FORESTER -- John Hardy has learned to adjust to the new economics of the auto industry. 11/21/04

Chapter Two: Disillusioned in Mexico
Jobs don't pay enough to loosen poverty's grip
JUAREZ, MEXICO--Rush hour in Juarez begins at 5 a.m. with a convoy of pale buses belching and creaking down the Ejercito Nacional, their white paint barely covering the names of the U.S. schools that discarded them. 11/21/04

Profile: Ana Aguilar
Woman leaves home, family behind in search of a better life
JUAREZ, MEXICO -- Ana Lilia Maldenado Aguilar is one of the lucky ones. She and her husband still have jobs in the factories. They rent a small, well-kept home. They hope to buy a used car this winter. 11/21/04

Chapter Three: Struggling in Honduras
Desperate people line up for jobs
SAN PEDRO SULA, HONDURAS --The overheated crowd stirs as two Americans approach the gate. Faces push through iron bars, shouting and smiling to draw the attention of the men they hope are offering jobs. 11/21/04

Profile: Jorge Ruis Puerto
Honduran man turns to faith as his income drops
SAN PEDRO SULA, HONDURAS -- Jorge Ruis Puerto made more money selling mangoes door to door. 11/21/04

Chapter Four: Hopeful in China
Low wages turn nation into magnet for jobs
WUHU, CHINA--The American businessmen raised their glasses for yet another toast. 11/21/04

Profile: Wang Min
45-cent-an-hour job gives woman hope for future
WUHU, China -- Wang Min lives in a small dormitory room with seven other factory workers. She doesn't know how she could ever afford a car in which the wire harnesses she builds are installed. She isn't even sure what the bundles of wires do. 11/21/04

Chapter Five: Abandoned in Michigan
Company sells last factory in state
HARBOR BEACH--In her nightmares, Deb Coverdill was in her car. "I'm dressed and I'm driving to work," Coverdill said. "I'm driving and I'm driving and I'm driving, and I never get there." 11/21/04

About this section
The Detroit News traveled 20,000 miles and conducted hundreds of interviews over six months for this report, tracing the movement of the wire harness industry around the globe and analyzing the economic forces behind the loss of U.S. auto industry jobs. 11/21/04